Lavenderlane - A Must See New Attraction in Zululand

A long-time dream, Lavenderlane Herbal Centre opened for business late in 2011, situated 6kms south of Mtunzini on the R102 (Obanjeni Sugar Estate). A tranquil and quiet atmosphere inspires relaxation as you enjoy any one of the many treatments available, or sit cosily on the verandah and enjoy a light lunch and home-made iced tea from the Lavenderlane Tea Garden.

Lavenderlane Herbal Centre also features "The Barn", the place to go for your beauty needs, with a wide range of products to choose from in an assortment of fragrances. Everything in The Barn, is "home-grown", in the sense that everything is proudly South African.

According to the Lavenderlane Website: "Our Clients are massaged with slow movements in a calming, soft environment with luxurious oils which have to be experienced. The therapeutic actions of our pure essential oils are matched with your personal health and lifestyle profile. We also offer massages for couples and small groups by prior arrangement. Our massages include: African Rungu, Hawaiian Lomi Lomi, Indian Head, indulgent foot and full Aromatherapy. Dusting and exfoliation allow lasting effects of an experience you will treasure."

The centre also offers:

• Educational tours on herbs and essential oils
• Art and craft centre selling many local artists handcraft
• Various artist may be observed at work
• Art, craft and health workshops

Pop along and take a look for yourself, you won't regret it.

Lavenderlane is a woman's empowerment project and makes a significant responsible tourism addition to the Zululand portfolio of community based tourism projects. 

For more information, click here

KwaBulawayo Launched

The Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) and uThungulu District Municipality launched a multi-million Rand tourism site at KwaBulawayo on the 15th December 2011. This as His Majesty, King Goodwill Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu and the MEC for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Nomusa Dube, opened the KwaBulawayo Cultural and Tourism Centre at Bhekeshowe. The event, witnessed by high ranking officials and thousands of guests, was part of the Provincial and District Governments’ efforts to celebrate and highlight the 40th year of the reign of Ongangezwelakhe (His Majesty the King).

The history of the Zulu nation highlights the significance of KwaBulawayo as the military capital of iSilo sa-KwaDukuza, King Shaka. The project is a partnership between the CoGTA and the uThungulu District Municipality, which has seen the legendary military capital being reconstructed to recapture its history and importance. It is envisaged that the launch of this site will kick-start various tourism activities in the area which will create jobs. At the function, the King enthralled listeners with stories of the people and places embedded in Zulu history and culture in the very area where the function was taking place.

Source: Zululand Observer

Revamp Your Tourism Business With Google (For Free)

Have you heard about ‘Google Places’ or ‘Google Local Business Center’? If not, you are missing out on a great opportunity to revamp your tourism business. Google Places is a tool from Google which offers a fantastic way for local businesses to reach out to more customers. It lets your business quickly establish a presence on Google Maps and attract potential tourists via the internet.

How does it work?
Google Places are a collection of web pages that are popped-up on Google Maps and Google.com when users search for local businesses and click the “More Info” button. As a business, it allows you to add and edit information about your products and services.

What does it cost?
“The best things in life are free” and Google Places is no exception to that rule. It’s a great tool for small businesses which do not have a budget for paid alternatives such as Google AdWords.

Further, you can actually derive the best out of Google Places by paying just $25 per month by using “tags”. How do tags help your business? In Google’s own words, Tags provide business owners with an opportunity to showcase an aspect of their business / establishment that they think best reflects what they have to offer their customers. They can do this by highlighting a link to point customers directly to photos, videos, Website, coupons, directions, menu or reservations signup.

Further, Google plans to let businesses post sales alerts and other promotions from their dashboards to their Tags in Place Pages. Google believes that Places has great potential for businesses and it can be a game changer for a business to revamp its local presence.

Favourite Places
In December 2010, Google started the ‘Favorite Places’ campaign to identify 100,000 of the most searched for businesses nationwide on Google. The campaign has now expanded that to an additional 50,000 businesses on top of offering the service to all who choose to use it.

Just imagine the business advantages that you can gain if your business gets ranked amongst Google Favourite Places. The possibilities are endless!

What about Coupons?
There’s no denying the fact that coupons are a great way for local tourism businesses to drive customers to their establishments. Google understands the importance of coupons as well as anyone else and hence it provides an option for businesses to offer Coupons through their Google Places Page.

The best part is that you can even offer these coupons to users on their mobile phones. The number of people using mobile devices to find local businesses is increasing exponentially and I expect that it will completely replace printed coupons in the coming five years.

Other Goodies
Apart from these fantastic features, Google Places offers loads of other goodies to promote your business. These include

• Free Photos – Google Places lets you upload photos of your business to accompany the product/ service listing.
• Barcode Scanning – Google Places offers an instant barcode-scanning facility for smartphones. This is especially handy for retailers who can use this feature to offer special deals to customers.

With nearly 50 million and counting Google Places Pages, it is undoubtedly a great way to boost your business prospects in the local community.

Source: Smedio

Tourism, Top Three Trends For 2012

Getting on top of your tourism marketing strategy for the coming year? Here are the three top trends predicted for 2012. 

Online booking will continue to (modestly) grow
More than 50% of travel bookings are now made on the internet. More than 114 million people will research travel online this year in the US alone, while 94 million will actually book reservations online

There will be more mobile bookings and research
More travellers will be turning to their mobile devices to not only research lodging and travel options, but to book and communicate room preferences directly with the hotel. Mobile channel booking has increased four-fold between 2008 and 2010 according to Forrester Research. Google is projecting that mobile will overtake PCs as the most common Web-access device by 2013. With travellers adopting smart phones and tablets at such a rapid pace, it's crucial for hospitality businesses to optimize their website for mobile usage to capture potential mobile transactions.

Social media will continue to transform connections with travellers
It is being projected that by 2016, half of the travel industry will be using social media as a way of generating revenue and bookings. Social media will become more of a key component of Search Engine Results Page (SERP) algorithms. Facebook's posts are already integrated into Bing search and Google+ emerged with native integration into Google search. Hospitality businesses can no longer afford to linger over adding social media to their marketing mix. It's now a necessary element of traffic-driving success.

For more travel trends, reports and outlook for the coming year, visit the Tourism Trend Spotting Website here. Their site is jam packed with really interesting and useful information on global tourism trends, advice and information!